Sank's Glossary of Linguistics 
 Top-Trad

TOPIC

  1. (Discourse) In discourse there are places where new semantic environments are established. These semantic boundaries, called Topics, are signaled in many different ways, often by the use of several types of signals at once.
     One signal is the use of discourse markers. In their lexicon, Louw and Nida (1996) create an entire domain specifically for discourse markers—familiarity with the lexical items within this domain is good to acquire for exegesis.
     A second signal to be aware of is the disruption of cohesion. Where there are disruptions in cohesion because of shifts in grammar (e.g., changes in tense form, changes in person/participants, etc.) or semantics (e.g., breaking of semantic chains), especially in conjunction with the use of discourse or deictic markers, the author is likely signaling the establishment of a new Topic in the discourse. Everything between Topic shifts is the Comment. | James D. Dvorak, 2008
  2. (Discourse) "The participant most crucially involved in the action sequence" (Givón 1983). Givón has identified several characteristics of topics.
    1. Topical participants are mentioned more often than non-topical participants: "More important discourse topics appear more frequently in the register, i.e. they have a higher probability of persisting longer in the register" (Givón 1983).
    2. In many languages, "topical referents are most commonly given special grammatical marking, while non-topical ones are left unmarked" (Givón 1995). The distal demonstrative determiner is one such special marker in Old English.
    3. One way to identify topics is to measure topic persistence.
     | Richard Epstein, 2011
See Also TOPIC PERSISTENCE.

TOPIC ACCESSIBILITY SCALE

  1. (Pragmatics) Lambrecht (1994) noted that it is likely that the more accessible the topic referent of an utterance is, the less processing effort to interpret that utterance is needed. This correlation is summarized as the Topic Accessibility Scale below. Chafe (1987) also states that it requires low cognitive effort to interpret a discourse-active referent.
    Topic Accessibility Scale
     
    ActiveMost accessible
    Accessible 
    Inactive 
    Brand-new anchored 
    Brand-new unanchoredLeast accessible
     | Robert Van Valin and Randy J. LaPolla, 1997
  2. (Pragmatics) Activation brings the conveying of information from knowledge to consciousness (Lambrecht 1994). Identifiability has to do with the access of knowledge, while activation has to do with consciousness. There are three activation states, namely inactive (unused but still in long term memory), semi-active (or accessible), and active (Lambrecht 1994). A referent that is active is the same as one that is "given", but Lambrecht avoids what he feels is an ambiguous term. So an unidentifiable referent has no activation state as yet, and when such a referent is identified, it is a brand-new item. Lambrecht distinguishes two types of brand-new items, following Prince (1981), namely an anchored brand-new item, which is linked to some other discourse entity, and an unanchored brand-new item, which does not have such a link. For example, a bus is unanchored, where a guy I work with is anchored. In summary then, Lambrecht distinguishes seven cognitive-pragmatic states of referents, namely:
     
    1.  unidentifiable/brand-new unanchored
    2.  unidentifiable/brand-new anchored
    3.  inactive/unused
    4.  textually accessible
    5.  situationally accessible
    6.  inferentially accessible
    7.  active/given

     The above list is simultaneously a topic accessibility scale. The active/given referents are the most accessible where the unanchored brand-new referents are the least accessible (Prince 1981). The unaccented pronominals are the preferred topic expressions, the most accessible, and the least marked in word-order in the unmarked topic-comment articulations (Prince 1981). | Sebastiaan Jonathan Floor, 2004

TOPIC PERSISTENCE
(Discourse) As Givón has demonstrated, one way to identify topics is to measure persistence, or the number of recurrences of a referent in the following text. The more highly topical a referent, the more frequently it should be mentioned again after it is first introduced in a section of the discourse. In several studies, Givón argues that a topic persistence measurement of less than two should be considered low; greater than two is considered high (Wright and Givón 1987, 1995). In other words, a referent that recurs more than twice in the ten clauses following its appearance in a passage should be considered highly persistent, which is an indication of high topicality. A referent that recurs only once or twice, or never again, is not highly persistent and thus, not a topic. | Richard Epstein, 2011

TOPICAL/FOCAL
(Information Structure) Givón states that discourse is made up of a combination of new and old information. We shall refer to the new information as focal, and the old information as presupposed or topical. Presupposed, topical information is "assumed by the speaker to be accessible to the hearer" either from the preceding text, or from a general knowledge of the world; focal information is "assumed by the speaker to be inaccessible to the hearer" (Givón 1992). Presupposed information serves as the "grounding point" or framework within which the focal information is processed (Givón 1992). By definition, the focal information is the most important part of the utterance, with the presupposed information grounding it to the context. | Steven E. Runge, 2012

TOPICALIZATION

  1. (Syntax) Many languages have a way to mark the topic in a sentence.
    1.  This book, I really like.
    2. a. As for this book, I really like it.
      b. This book, I really like it.
     Example (1) is typically called the topic construction while (2) is referred to as left dislocation. In both cases some sort of topic phrase is placed at the head of the sentence. We will refer to both as topicalization. | Shigeru Miyagawa, 2017
  2. (Syntax) A mechanism that establishes an expression as the sentence or clause topic; in English, by having it appear at the front of the sentence or clause (as opposed to in a canonical position further to the right). Topicalization often results in a discontinuity and is thus one of a number of established discontinuity types (the other three being wh-fronting, scrambling, and extraposition). Topicalization is also used as a constituency test; an expression that can be topicalized is deemed a constituent. The topicalization of arguments in English is rare, whereas circumstantial adjuncts are often topicalized. Most languages allow topicalization, and in some languages, topicalization occurs much more frequently than in English. | Wikipedia, 2016

TOPONYM
(General) A word that is the name of a place. Examples:

  1. As with the glyph for jade, it is frequent in representations of a religious nature and in toponyms alike.
  2. As this toponym is situated along the right side of the map, it would correspond to the east.
  3. Toponyms ending in -thorpe, -by, -combe, -gill and -royd are associated with regions settled by different groups such as Celts, Vikings, Danes, and Saxons.
 | Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary and Thesaurus

TP

  1. (Syntax) Abbreviation for Tense Phrase. A phrase seen, in generative accounts, as headed by a unit characteristically realized by a tense inflection. | Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics, 2007
  2. (Syntax) Stowell's (1993) account of sequence of tense is based on a syntactic TP (tense phrase) with the following geometry:
     

    1.      TP
          ╱╲
         ╱   ╲
        ZP0     T′
               ╱╲
             ╱   ╲
            T     VP
                ╱╲
               ╱   ╲
              ZP1     VP
       

     The tense node T denotes, in my terms, a relation between local evaluation time and eventuality time; ZP0 denotes the local evaluation time and ZP1 corresponds to the eventuality argument of the verb. | Dorit Abusch, 1994
  3. (Syntax) Looking at the relation of VPs and small clauses to matrix clauses tells us something about how language goes about adding information beyond predicate meeting arguments. At a minimum, tense (and aspect, and a significant portion of modality and other inflectional elements) is added in a larger clause that includes a VP or small clause as a complement. The current view seems to be to separate out a number of distinct syntactic units providing these, singling out tense as the salient unit. Not long ago, a single inflectional position was assumed to combine them all. But regardless, the picture is that within a matrix clause a predication structure falls under a structure proving tense information, at least. The picture is something like:
     
    1.  [ TP tense plus ... [ VP predicate and arguments ] ]

     We do not get a matrix clause, and do not get something we are able to assert, until we get up at least as high as TP, a tense phrase, according to current theories. Such a structure grammatically encodes the idea that additional temporal information beyond objects meeting properties is needed to describe the world. Syntax provides a separate syntactic position for adding it, such as the T head (the main syntactic component of the T phrase). | Michael Glanzberg, 2011

TP ELLIPSIS

  1. (Syntax) Abbreviation for Tense Phrase Ellipsis. A type of predicate ellipsis. In VP Ellipsis, another kind of predicate ellipsis, the verb in T is phonologically realized; in TP Ellipsis, it is deleted.

    1. Portuguese
      a.
       
      Bach
      Bach
      é
      is
      difícil
      hard
      de
      to
      interpretar
      play,
      e
      and
      Mozart
      Mozart
      também
      also
       é .
       is .
      (TPE)
      b.
       
      Bach
      Bach
      é
      is
      difícil
      hard
      de
      to
      interpretar
      play
      e
      and
      Mozart
      Mozart
      também
      also
      é.
      is.
      (VPE)
        'Bach is hard to play, and Mozart (is) too.'

     | Anna Maria Martins, 2016
  2. (Example) 
    1. Spanish
      Juan fue al cine y María también  fue 
      lit. 'Juan went to the cinema and Mary also  went '
     | Andrés Saab, 2010

TRACE
(Syntax) A phonetically null element said by Chomsky and his followers to occupy the position from which a syntactic element has been moved.

  1. Maryi I really love ti.
 In (1), ti is the trace left by a movement of Mary from its position in I really love Mary. | Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics, 2003

TRACE THEORY

  1. (Syntax) Theory about traces left by movement. This theory assumes that if an element X has been moved in the course of a derivation, it has left a trace in its original position.
     In (1) the NP John is moved while leaving a trace t, indicating its d-structure position.

    1.  Johni seems [ ti to have left ]

     Since theta-marking occurs at d-structure, it is possible to determine the thematic role of the moved NP via its trace. The concept of a trace is crucial to the theory of movement and to bounding theory, because a trace can be treated as an empty category. (Chomsky 1973, 1981, 1986, Riemsdijk and Williams 1986) | Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics, 2001
  2. (Syntax)  The trace theory of movement rules was first outlined in Chomsky (1973) and has been developed in many subsequent works: Selkirk (1972), Wasow (1972), Vergnaud (1974), Fiengo (1974), and Chomsky (1975, 1976). The last three references characterize trace theory as a proposal that an NP, when moved, leaves behind a trace that it binds. Traces are then subject to two conditions: that either they be properly bound or they be obliterated. An NP properly binds a trace when it precedes and commands it. Hence any lowering or rightward movement rule will place an NP in a position such that it cannot properly bind its trace; therefore, that trace will have to be obliterated in some way.
     The earliest motivation for introducing the notion of a trace was the desire to employ the Specified Subject Condition (SSC) to block the application of Each Movement in structures like (1a). It was argued that a moved NP, Mary, left behind a trace, which served as a specified subject and thereby activated the SSC. Chomsky (1973) also appeals to traces for the interpretation of wh-structures.

    1. a. Mary seemed to each of the men [ t to like the others ]S
      b. * Mary seemed to the men to like each other.

     But much of the subsequent appeal of the theory seems to lie in the claim that it yields exactly the right information to support semantic interpretation at the level of surface structure. In fact, the claim has been made (Dougherty 1975) that the real motivation for trace theory is the desire to do all semantic interpretation off surface structures. Thus we may distinguish between two views of trace theory:

    1. The pluralist view mirrors the historical development of the theory and says that traces
      1.  play a crucial role in the syntax and
      2.  turn out to yield exactly the right information at surface structure to support semantic interpretation.
    2. The exclusively semantic view says that the early syntactic evidence for trace theory is not crucial and that the theory is motivated only by the requirement of surface structure semantic interpretation.

     | David Lightfoot, 1976

TRADITIONAL TRANSMISSION
(Diachronic) One of the 13 design features of language developed by anthropologist Charles F. Hockett to distinguish the features of human language from that of animal communication. Critically, animal communication might display some of the 13 features but never all of them. It is typically considered as one of the crucial characteristics distinguishing human from animal communication and provides significant support for the argument that language is learned socially within a community and not inborn where the acquisition of information is via the avenue of genetic inheritance.
 In essence, the idea of traditional transmission details the process by which language is passed down from one generation to the next. In this manner, it is often also referred to as cultural transmission where it is a mechanism of iterated learning. Common processes would include imitation or teaching. The model purports that present learners acquire the cultural behavior, that is language in this instance, by observing similar behaviors in others who acquired the language the same way (Thompson and Smith 2015). This is an important distinction made in "The Origin of Speech" (1960), where Hockett defines traditional transmission: "the detailed conventions of any one language are transmitted extra-genetically by learning and teaching". While culture is not unique to the human species, the way it exhibits itself as language in human society is very distinctive (Whiten 2005), and one key trait of this uniqueness is the element of social groups. | Wikipedia, 2024

 

Page Created By Split April 24, 2025

 
 B a c k   T o   I n d e x